As I had explained to the other returners, approximately 3 hours after the conclusion of our meeting, the planet began trembling, the storm clouds above expanded, lightning zipped around the sky, and a long rolling thunderstorm began.
Only instead of normal lightning, this time, the streaks in the sky were either a bright crimson or a sickly green.
’Sometimes you freak me out with your predictions, Tay…like, seriously…’ Brenden said in a solemn tone as all of us returners lined up near the base camp.
This content is taken from fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm.
I had returned after a final round of observations before joining everyone to watch the Emergence of what could potentially be the single most important event of Earth’s History…that is, until the Descent.
’It’s not my fault that you suck at math; all I did was run the probability against the energy output of the Empowering Stage, and convert that into minutes, then hours.’
’Yeah, yeah, I get it, you’re so smart.’ Brenden responded while rolling his eyes and causing our father to chuckle.
"This whole event is eerily similar to when the Aclimation began…" Piniki, who had been annoying…cough, I mean following around me for hours, said while intervening in the family’s silent conversation.
"It makes sense, considering the process involved in bringing forth the Undead Tower is a small-scale version of what Arkadia did to Earth when introducing particles." Glancing out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Erik and his posse show up.
"Uh…hey Nexus…so…all that’s going to happen is a big Mountain will appear, right? That’s not going to mess up anything with like Earth’s Magnetic Field or anything that could spell disaster for our planet…right…." Sonas, fighting anxiety, asked, causing me to tilt my head and look him dead in the eyes.
"I suppose you want to hear my theory and not some crackpot thesis, am I correct?"
Instead of giving a verbal answer, Sonas merely nodded, causing me to sigh heavily. Life would really be so much easier if I lied. Unfortunately, for reasons I’d rather not delve into, I don’t; the closest to which I get is leaving out certain bits of information.
"There are a few different ways this can go, and none of them are explicitly detailed in the Inscription; the first and most viable option would be that the Inscription draws in the surrounding land to form the Tower, in which case, a large portion of Colorado, and even the surrounding states could become wastelands, devoid of wildlife or even foliage, just soil, and rock."
"Even when particles are involved, the Law Of Conservation of Mass must be observed; matter can’t be destroyed or created during physical or chemical changes, so basically nothing can come from nothing; there must always be a source, meaning the formation will draw in the appropriate amount of resources before bathing it in Particles and molding it into the form of the mountain I have explained."
"If this is the case, then that means the general weight and mass of Earth will not change and will only be redistributed, in which case, since it is being done in the same approximate location, I don’t see much more happening than a Wobble of Axis for Earth, nothing more."
"Once the general construction is completed, the Instance will be ripped away from the Void and planted into the Mountain like a puzzle piece fitting into place."
"However, if the construction of the Tower happens by other means….then we should probably move a little further back because it would be like a small-scale Dino-Meteor incident, large rock hits Earth, big boom, lots of dust, catastrophic after effects, the works, especially since the Tower will be buried a mile into the Earth’s crust."
"Those are the two most likely of the over fifty different outcomes I have predicted, take your pick…but it looks like we are about to find out which it is,"
In tandem with my words, the massive wall of light began rotating counter-clockwise; as a new pillar of light emerged off in the distance, it was time for the Runic Inscription’s activation.
To the untrained eye, and from a distance, it almost resembled a massive space laser crashing into what I deemed to be the center of the formation; however, to me, I noticed the multiple different rotations and the snake-like movement of light coiling around this large pillar.
"I’m glad we convinced the news media to move away…" I heard Sonas mutter as the earthquakes picked up steam and caused a lot of people to stumble around.
Then again, those of us who were more experienced and in higher Ranks easily stood our ground, watching and waiting to see what would happen.
’Taylor, what are you seeing?’ Using our Telepathic Connection, Dad, who had his arms crossed, inquired.
’If I weren’t already doing something, we’d need to move back approximately 2 miles because I can already see the shifting of topsoil; it’s drawing in everything it can.’
’Are you planning on telling anyone, or are we gonna wing it and act like we don’t know,’ Trying to pry Sonas off his arm since the guy was hanging onto him like a koala, Brenden asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice.
’We will be fine; I’m already controlling the ground underfoot with Geomancy; hm, looks like Erik Noticed; his senses are sharp,’
In the blink of an eye, Erik appeared behind me, his sudden movement causing the members of Stillwater, as well as several particle-sensitive Returners, to follow.
"Geomancy? I pegged you for having a physical talent, not Meta."
"I believe the words you are looking for are, Thank you, Nexus, for giving us stable footing while the ground we were standing on gets absorbed by the Runic Inscription," rolling my eyes and giving a snort, I split my attention in half, one part controlling the rocky terrain within a 40 meter radius above and below ground so that I would have a good vantage point in watching the Towers emergence.
And the other part of my attention was observing the Runic Inscription.
"Heh, you’re pretty funny when you want to be; even a child would know you were only manipulating the ground so that you could stay and watch,"
In response to Erik’s provocation, all I did was use my thumb to point at the still panicking Sonas as he held on for dear life to my brother’s leg after losing his grip on Brenden’s arm, then waist.
"Tell that to him,"